NORM FUCKING MACDONALD

you got any gum :(

https://i.imgur.com/ARiKLMS.jpg

His politics may have been ehhhhh but he was a very funny fellow. One of my favorites, always makes me laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-9wo_apQ1s

Very weird I was thinking about him just today

He’s not really a name at all in the uk, & a number of years ago a friend told me I had to watch the roast of Bob saget (who also isn’t) & I was watching thinking this is fucking dire, just total dogshit, why the fuck did he think I should see this, and then Norm’s bit came on and i absolutely died laughing. & I’m glad to have watched the rest of the show just for the context of the kind of shit that was expected

Have watched a handful of clips of talk show appearances &c but no real sense of what he’s known for, will appreciate digging in to RIP clips

gut punch. he was like the jordan or gretzky of talk show guests, just operating on a totally different level from everyone else

His SNL Weekend Update was a cornerstone of my teen years. And pretty easily the best thing about SNL for many of those years.

that Bob Saget roast was really the moment he became my favorite comedian. idk who else could've pulled that off.

I'll say it again

aaaaarrrghhh

RIP

i hate comedians but i loved Norm

RIP you cunt

What's the best clip I can show to my kids, 11 and 16, to explain who he was

The Scrabble story might be where I realized how great he is.

simply no one funnier. very sad. strongly recommend his bonkers youtube talkshow to those who havent seen it, which (imho) achieves the impossible by successfully bottling the gidddy dgaf energy of his talkshow guest appearances. it didnt really translate when he switched over to netflix, but some of those youtube episodes are the hardest ive laughed in my adult life, like the culmination of all the different things he was good at: being a chaotic foulmouthed talkshow guest, long shaggy dog stories, weekend update-style non sequitur jokes. idk if its even still up or if it got wiped from the net, but worth searching for.

I think about his very funny mildly racist appearance hosting the mtv vma red carpet a while back often

his older movies are all completely awful, I like the concept of the dude being around but it also doesn't bother me that he's dead, like in a way he represents something that had to die

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A848xpsDJbw

this moth joke is 100% the Norm Brand™️

(to me anyway)

The Norm Macdonald "moth Joke," one of the greatest jokes every told on television. pic.twitter.com/daC9oPVPsU

— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) September 14, 2021

What's the best clip I can show to my kids, 11 and 16, to explain who he was

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, September 14, 2021 2:45 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The roast clip I posted and that everyone is talking about is the cleanest roast panel ever. They're just corny old-timey jokes. It's all about his delivery.

this is going to be the funniest and happiest celebrity death mourning in recent memory, though. i've already cried from laughing multiple times today

I gotta say, I’ve laughed a lot from all these clips people are sharing but

RIP

the moth joke is a deserved classic

This is still unlike anything I’ve ever seen, just a flatly extraordinary moment. On his Comedians In Cars.. episode Seinfeld says he’d never known a set on tv get such a positive reaction among fellow comedians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjEvl43zYY

this clip is so perfect

pic.twitter.com/g1o0PLsUyj

— Wyatt Duncan Idaho (@WyattDuncan) September 14, 2021

"I didn't even know he was sick" loool

Dude had a pretty big rep among stand up comedians and they all seem to have at least one wild and weird story about Norm McDonald. Like some other comedians, far to weird and crazy to actually cash in as going for the joke would derail many of his attempts in Hollywood etc.

One of my favorite things he did in TV/movies was his bit role with John Cullum playing Neil Flynn's brother and dad on The Middle. Those three should have been a show.

i *love* how much he loves to deliver that corny-ass punchline - weekend update, the saget roast, his panel appearances, everything

like there is a twinkle in his eye and a glee for just how terrible it is as he stares down the camera or the host or the audience, just locked in … and i could not love him more for like, just that quality alone.

it's his little archaic asides that slay me like in the Bob Saget roast where he says "Now Bob's no big fan of sports....I don't think I'm telling tales out of school here"

xp Yeah, his sense of humor always reminded me of a few guys I grew up with… that undercurrent of good-natured irony, like “I know this is dumb, and so do you, and that’s why it’s so great”

(which is what a lot of alt comedy is, but he didn’t bother playing it straight)

He was also super quick on his feet, as you can see in those clips where interrupts other guests on the Conan couch. We saw him perform in a club in SF, in the early 2000s, and I remember how effortlessly sharp his crowdwork was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n54L1Kx8apU

i loved the dostoevsky-esque names he gives the characters in his moth story, russian names he can hardly pronounce just make it that much more awkward

Watching the Conan clip where he calls Carrot Top a "retard." I don't think that would really fly these days

yeah idk if today's youths would really buy the concept of "carrot top"

lol

he still makes me laugh and obviously he was very gifted but ultimately i'm just not that into what his thing was anymore, the dadliest of dads but ironic. there's a whiff of masculine self-regard about his thing that i used to think was cool but now i just don't have time for or care for. maybe i just don't like any professional comedians at all idk. the r word or the occasional anti trans joke or whatever is part of that as were his politics. not pretending that there wasn't plenty of that on tv at the time, just saying that it isn't out of line with his persona. though it seems like he did soften as he got older, got more classicist with his jokes, lost some of the cool guy snark, but there was always a smidge of the reactionary in him.

as far as absurdist comedians go i much prefer mitch hedberg and if i were as old as i am now when he died i'd be really gutted about it.

even the stuff he wrote for other shows was gold

Norm MacDonald was a writer on Roseanne and he was responsible for Jackie's iconic "Dad's dead" moment, inspired by an experience in his own life. pic.twitter.com/nSflQ8d6qU

— Kevin Daly (@kevinddaly) September 14, 2021

Wow, I didn't know that

pic.twitter.com/jNzAvA6zWb

— mr. toilet (@boring_as_heck) September 14, 2021

His book was good. RIP.

xpost lmao god he was so good

Currently enjoying this Cameo from Norm someone uploaded to youtube. Norm was asked to wish someones dad a happy retirement, Norm ends up going on for 8 full minutes, tells an extremely longwinded dirty joke, and advises the dad to walk into the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUH1G6j0RAQ

just saw this clip of the mangrate saga on his show and despite the presence of andy dick i completely lost my shit https://mikepepsi.tumblr.com/post/662346085393678336/norm-macdonald-kept-losing-sponsors-on-his-podcast

"Your Dad's alive?"

"No"

"Fuck!!"

"that's what makes english the world's toughest language"

"it is the toughest language? to me it's the easiest"

hahahaha that cameo is incredible

"you know what might be a good hobby for you, Richard? Ventriloquism."

"All I could see was the angry eyes of Alan Thicke."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhdV4vxpZSg

I love how all the SNL guys do impressions of each other.

its been a real joy seeing all these clips of Norm pop up on Twitter. there's so much I haven't seen, dude was so naturally hilarious that pretty much any random podcast appearance could be gold

the Bob Saget roast clip is blowing up again and as much as I love it, it's kind of weird to see it divorced from context - I actually watched it as it aired and Norm's set was 3x funnier when it followed an hours worth of comedians trying to out-Andrew Dice Clay each other

I love when he goes full Canadian in the Jacques de Gatineau and Kitchener Leslie stories.